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Living the Gospel – October 14, 2018

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Let’s try something…First, take a big breath of air in and hold it. Now that you’re full of air, WITHOUT LETTING GO OF THE AIR YOU HAVE, try to breathe in another HUGE breath!

Could you breathe in as much air the second time as you could the first time? Probably not. You couldn’t get as much air because you were still holding on to that first breath of air. The way breathing works is that you have to LET GO of the first breath in order to be able to take a second breath. But if you think about it, that’s kind of scary. We’re letting go of something we need before we have the next thing we need. In today’s Bible story, we hear a similar thing happen. In today’s scripture story there’s a man who asks Jesus how he can better receive what God is offering. So Jesus tells the man that he has to give away (let go of) the one thing that the man thinks he needs so that he can receive from God the next thing he needs. Just like breathing, right?

Except, for this man, letting go of that first thing was a really hard thing for him to do. It was so hard for the man to let go of, that the man actually gave up and walked away – he couldn’t do it. Jesus then tells his disciples, “This is a very hard thing to do.” So the disciples ask, “Yeah we see that – how can anyone do this?” And Jesus says, “For God, all things are possible.”

”When Jesus says “For God, all things are possible,” he meant we are not expected to do things on our own. Instead, we are expected to ask for God’s help. Not just with the big things, but also the small things. But in order to receive God’s help, we sometimes have to let go of something else, we have to let out that first breath, so that we can take in that second breath. It sounds a little scary and quite hard…but it is possible.

What do you need to let go of to make room in your life to receive God?

This week let’s pray for the wisdom and courage to let go.

Peg Orzel